I’m not sure how this ranks in terms of an “accomplishment” but I recently posted my 10,000th tweet on Twitter.

That works out to about eight tweets/day. If a tweet takes a minute to create, I’ve spent 160 hours creating content. Either that’s been a good investment in terms of personal branding and providing value to the community, or it’s been a lot of productive time wasted.

Given I’m so vested in social media as part of what I do for a living, I can only see 10,000 tweets as a solid investment. A necessary evil in offering social media consulting service is you have to walk the walk in addition to talking the talk. It is difficult to suggest a client commit themselves to Twitter if you’re not already drinking the Kool-Aid.

I do have to admit that cracking the 10,000 tweet barrier also provided more food for thought about the amount of time spent on social media. One of the key issues I’m trying to attack is how to become more focused and productive. For all the benefits of social media, it’s also a time and focus killer.

In many ways, social media is double-edged sword for me. I see it as valuable but, like many people, grapple with how and when to use it.